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Page 112 - The mechanical part of Gothic architecture is pretty well understood, but it is the principles which influenced ancient compositions, and the soul which appears in all the former works, which is so lamentably deficient ; nor, as I have before stated, can they be regained but by a restoration of the ancient feelings and sentiments. 'Tis they alone that can restore Gothic architecture...

Page 163 - Oh ! then, what delight ! what joy unspeakable ! when one of the solemn piles is presented to them, in all its pristine life and glory ! — the stoups are filled to the brim ; the rood is raised on high ; the screen glows with sacred imagery and rich device ; the niches are filled ; the altar is replaced, sustained by sculptured shafts, the relics of the saints repose beneath, the body of Our Lord is enshrined on its consecrated stone ; the lamps of the sanctuary burn bright ; the saintly portraitures...

Page 86 - ... architecture — has been here ; need I say more ? I wound myself up to the pitch to bear the sight of the havoc he had committed. Of course here his old trick of throwing the Lady Chapel into the choir by pulling down the altar-screen ; then he has pewed the choir and walled up the arches of the choir, making the aisles nothing but dark passages.

Page 164 - It is very necessary, therefore, that all those who have felt sorrow at this should know at once that he is not a great architect, but one of the smallest possible or conceivable architects : and that by his own account and setting forth of himself. Hear him : " I believe, as regards architecture, few men have been so unfortunate as myself. I have passed my life in thinking of fine things, studying fine things, designing fine things, and realising very poor ones.

Page 225 - I have now seen Rome and what Italian architecture can do," he wrote,1 "and I do not hesitate to say that it is an imperative duty on every Catholic to defend true and Christian architecture with his whole energy. The modern churches here are frightful ; St. Peter's is far more ugly than I expected, and vilely constructed — a mass of imposition...

Page 315 - Let us remember to his honour that, if now there seems to be the dawn of a better architecture, if our edifices seem to be more correct in taste, more genuine in material, more honest in construction, and more sure to last, it was he who first showed us that our architecture offended not only against the laws of beauty, but also against the laws of morality.

Page 316 - It will be readily admitted that the great test of Architectural beauty is the fitness of the design to the purpose for which it is intended, and that the style of a building should so correspond with its use that the spectator may at once perceive the purpose for which it was erected.

Page 333 - The two great rules for design are these: 1st, that there should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction, or propriety; 2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building.

Page 164 - One might have put this man under a pix, and left him, one should have thought ; but he has been brought forward, and partly received, as an example of the effect of ceremonial splendour on the mind of a great architect. It is very necessary, therefore, that all those who have felt sorrow at this should know at once that he is not a great architect, but one of the smallest possible or conceivable architects ; and that by his own account and setting forth of himself.

Page 317 - The three great doctrines, of the redemption of man by the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross; the three equal persons united in one Godhead; and the resurrection of the dead,— are the foundation of Christian Architecture. The first...